At the top of the list are a pair of bills that would rewrite the law that protects ordinary Americans from government snooping. Put bluntly — from a civil liberties perspective — bills simply don’t get much worse than those proposed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) to “modernize” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). What began ostensibly as an effort to bring the administration’s warrantless surveillance program under judicial review has turned into an attempt to repeal the language that protects Americans from warrantless snooping.

Also on the watch list are Congressional efforts to impose mandatory labeling requirements on Web site operators; a bill that would require schools and libraries to block interactive Internet content; an attempt to compel Internet providers to retain massive amounts of customer data for use by law enforcement; and several other bills and planned measures that threaten privacy and civil liberties.